On the go and no time to finish that story right now? Your News is the place for you to save content to read later from any device. Register with us and content you save will appear here so you can access them to read later.

This morning it took almost an hour before the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management (MCDEM) aknowledged the severe magnitude 7.1 earthquake off East Cape that WeatherWatch and GeoNet had been covering since it happened. It also took a full hour for Civil Defence to issue a public tsunami threat and over 80 minutes for a Tsunami Warning.

In the minutes after the earthquake, recorded at 4:37am, GeoNet had already reviewed and confirmed the size and depth of this earthquake.

But GeoNet cannot advise the public on tsunami risks - they must wait for Civil Defence to do it.

There are some great people at Civil Defence, both in the local councils and in Government at MCDEM. But this morning's delays once again remind us that Civil Defence, at least from a Ministry point of view, is FAR too slow in these highly critical moments.

The simple solution? Give GeoNet the power to talk to the people beyond saying just where the quake was and how strong it was.

GeoNet has a great reputation, are well known for setting the standards, and most importantly they are both accurate and fast. In an urgent life or death situation the current set up is bad.

If the New Zealand Government is OK with MetService warning us of cyclones, why can't the scientific experts at GeoNet be the ones to initially warn and update us re: tsunami risk? Civil Defence can still take over once they 'get going' - but we shouldn't have to wait first for them.